Pázmánd is a village in Fejér county,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Situated between

Lake Velence Lake Velence ( ; ), an endorheic basin, is the third largest natural lake in Hungary. It is a popular holiday destination among Hungarians. The lake has an area of 26 km2, one third of which is covered by Phragmites, the common reed. Because ...

and the quartzitic tors of the Velence Hills, it covers of gently rising

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

and ancient

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, approximately from the lake shore and south-west of

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. The village is home to the Pázmándi Quartzite Rocks Nature Reserve, a dramatic mini-

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

carved through 37-million-year-old volcanic

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

that features sculptural rock formations and Mediterranean relic plants. With a growing population that increased from 1,989 in 2001 to 2,313 in 2022, Pázmánd maintains its historical connection to

viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

through local micro-wineries producing the community blend Könnyűvér, while also developing tourism around its geological features, historical sites and position within the Velence Hills' "Volcano Country" hiking network.

Description

Situated between

and the quarzitic tors of the Velence Hills, Pázmánd covers of gently rising

and ancient

only from the lake shore and south-west of

Census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

figures show steady growth from 1,989 inhabitants in 2001 to 2,313 in 2022, fuelled by commuters and second-home owners drawn by the M7 motorway and Velence's bathing beaches.

Viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

remains the backbone of local farming: south-facing plots on Kálvária- and Zsidókő-hegy supply grapes to several micro-wineries that bottle the community blend Könnyűvér, a light Kékfrankos-based red marketed under the "Pázmándi Bor" umbrella.

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

surveys trace continuous

human settlement In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community of people living in a particular location, place. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of Dwelling, dwellings gro ...

back to the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

; Roman road fragments and late-imperial coins mark Pázmánd's spot on the main Danube–Savaria route. Mediaeval charters of 1051 list the estate among the crown grants to the

Hont-Pázmány Hont-Pázmány (Hunt-Poznan) was the name of a ''gens'' ("clan") in the Kingdom of Hungary. The ''Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum'' mentions that the ancestors of the family, the brothers Hont (Hunt) and Pázmány (Pazman), originally from the Duchy ...

clan, whose name lives on in the village's

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper na ...

. Ottoman raids left Pázmánd virtually uninhabited, but 18th-century resettlement by German wine-growers rebuilt the street plan still visible today and erected the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

Catholic church on Fő utca, renovated in 2017 with EU rural-development funds. Above the houses, a hillside Calvary—three white crosses first recorded in 1796 and restored in 2016—crowns the steep path to Zsidókő-hegy and serves as the backdrop to Easter passion plays. The same hill shelters the Pázmándi Quartzite Rocks Nature Reserve (), a narrow, sixty-metre-deep mini-

chiselled through 37-million-year-old volcanic

. Sculptural blocks such as Cápa-uszony ("Shark Fin") and Boszorkány-konyha ("witches' kitchen") line the signed red-trail circuit; their fissures host

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

relic plants and attract boulderers, while the summit platform opens broad views over the Fejér plain to the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

. Village

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

capitalises on this

geodiversity Geodiversity is the variety of earth materials, forms and processes that constitute and shape the Earth, either the whole or a specific part of it.Zwolinski, Zb. 2004. ''Geodiversity'', in: ''Encyclopedia of Geomorphology'', A.Goudie (ed.), Routle ...

: way-marked walks link the gorge to an 18th-century

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

replica, a barefoot sensory park and local cellar lanes, slotting Pázmánd into the Velence Hills' branded "Volcano Country" hiking network.

Gallery

File:Pázmánd-első-katonai-felmérés-térképe.jpg, The map of Pázmánd from the First Military Mapping Survey of Austria Empire. File:Pázmánd-második-katonai-felmérés-térképe.jpg, The map of Pázmánd from the Second Military Mapping Survey of Austria Empire. File:Pázmánd-harmadik-katonai-felmérés-térképe.jpg, The map of Pázmánd from the 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria Empire.

References

External links

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Street map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pazmand Populated places in Fejér County